Introduction

NOTE: As of linux kernel 3.0 the rt2800usb driver automatically works with devices using the rt2870 chipset.

This entry is to aid you in configuring wireless settings for use with devices built with Ralink's rt2870 chipset. I hope that this entry will encourage further contribution regarding the configuration of ralink drivers.

Authentication

Note: Because I use WPA and have not tested WEP configuration, the WEP configuration type explained is just a guess. If you use a rt2870 device with a WEP protected network, then please correct the wiki.

Troubleshooting

dmesg:Bulk In Failed, CMDTHREAD_RESET_BULK_IN, etc.

Bulk In Failed messages are not so bad, but a problem arises when and if the failed data leads to CMDTHREAD_RESET_BULK_IN which results in the module removing itself (e.g. modprobe -r rt2870sta).

This probably happened because you created your own RT2870STA.dat file. Go into the rt2870 tarball directory, into the source code directory, and replace the RT2870STA.dat in Template:Filename with the preconfigured .dat file in the Template:Filename directory. From there, set the options that correspond to your network without removing any of the options.

rt2870CmdThread is using a lot of CPU

I do not specifically know why this occurs, but it is probably because you connected your device to a hub.

Kernel 2.6.30 issues

There seem to be multiple issues with the rt2870 driver in the 2.6.30 kernel. Please refer to this thread

Kernel 2.6.31 module conflicts

The 2.6.31 kernel caused the rt2870 driver to conflict with other wireless modules. The fix in this thread says that you need to blacklist the rt2800usb, rt2x00usb, and rt2x00lib modules. See Kernel modules#Blacklisting for information about blacklisting kernel modules.